March is at the height of the rainy season in Zambia. It is also the green season again - water and green everywhere. This morning is special and we are ready to go!

We live in Chingola on the Zambian Copperbelt. It's about 400 kilometers north of Lusaka, the capital of Zambia. My wife, Molly and I had decided that I take a few days off from work. I work as a geologist for one of the mining companies. So you guessed right, rocks and minerals are my business! But so is the Victoria Falls. Did I mention that it was our destination for that day's 'trip'?

Livingstone is home to the awe-inspiring, mystic...Victoria Falls. It is over 500 kilometers south of Lusaka. Now you know why we had to brace ourselves for this 'small trip,' a trip covering some 1000 kilometers - a great driving test for a day! The look of the morning suggests fine weather, but as usual afternoon rains were expected. You learn to predict such with age, you know : - )!

It is 6:00hrs in the morning and we are packed ready to go. The children, there are four nice guys we wouldn't like to be without, are hovering around. The youngest Martha says, "See the falls for us too and come back home safely." They had to remain because they were going to school later that morning.

I threw the hold all bag in the boot of our family car. It's a Toyota Chaser, a saloon car still good on its wheels. It still drives effortlessly on asphalt roads and that was our type of road all the way; from Chingola to Livingstone. Literally cutting Zambia in half. See the butterfly-shaped map of our magic country Zambia.

Kitwe Zambia's Second City
We were on our way...and stealing from a Chinese saying "a journey of thousand miles starts with one step". Just about thirty minutes later we arrived in Kitwe. This is the first town outside Chingola. It is the hub of the mining activities in Zambia and the town is centrally located on the Copperbelt. Its 'wealth' comes from the four surrounding mining towns of Chililabombwe, Chingola, Mufulira and Luanshya.

Kitwe has a small central business district surrounded by residential areas. There are a few tall buildings within the business district. But business is growing and is now encroaching onto the nearby suburbs. Fancy offices are coming in the suburbs. You know, they pull down homes to replace them with office blocks.

Kitwe is a small cosmopolitan city, sort of busy, people crisscrossing, shopping and some with all sorts of wares for sale. Hawker traders are everywhere. It